Is my UI's confusing navigation causing high cognitive load and user drop-offs?

hey everyone, so following up on my last post about whether my UI's persuasion was off, i've been digging a bit deeper and now i'm really wondering if the navigation itself is the main issue. it just feels like users are getting lost or confused in our main app navigation, and this is probably leading to some pretty high cognitive load and causing them to bounce before they even hit the key features we want them to use.

we've got some specific examples of navigation trouble too. it feels like maybe there are just too many menu items, or the labels aren't clear enough, or some of our multi-step processes just aren't intuitive at all. i'm thinking our overall information architecture could be pretty messy, and that's contributing to the confusion.

• too many top-level menu items that don't clearly relate.
• labels that are too vague or use internal jargon users don't get.
• key workflows requiring too many clicks or navigating back and forth confusingly.

so, how can i definitively tell if our navigation structure is *the* primary problem, not just a symptom of something else? and what are some immediate, low-effort things to test or fix to reduce this cognitive load? really appreciate any insights or diagnostic tools you guys use for identifying and fixing navigation usability issues. waiting for an expert reply!